Wall Street finally had some good news with revisions to NFP data from last week keeping the whole edifice afloat while the USD remained somewhat weak against the major currency pairs as the latest FOMC minutes indicated a willingness to cut at the next meeting. Euro remains strong against King Dollar as does Yen which
Alan Kohler published an article this week arguing that the massive rise in immigration-driven population growth over the past two decades has driven Australia’s housing crisis. While I agree with Kohler’s conclusion that immigration must be reduced “to something approaching the actual capacity of the construction industry to build houses for them all”, he also
Recall this week’s survey of 49 so-called “leading” economists, which pinned the blame for Australia’s housing crisis on supply-side barriers while ignoring the role of excessive levels of immigration: Note from the above graphic that only 6% of surveyed economists picked “restrain immigration” as a solution to Australia’s housing mess, while 14% picked “fast-track immigration
Earlier this year, economists at the National Bank of Canada published research showing that Canada is caught in a “population trap” of declining productivity and living standards. The National Bank of Canada economists explained the nation’s productivity decline as follows: “Why is our productivity record so bad? Could it be that our demographic ambitions are
A shaky session for Asian share markets as Wall Street begins to lose momentum before the release of tonight’s FOMC minutes. Equity futures are a bit flat going into tonight’s session with the weak USD still on the backfoot versus Euro and other currencies with the Australian dollar looking a lot stronger as it lifts
Justin Fabo at Antipodean Macro has published charts on New Zealand house prices, which have entered another ‘bear market’. Both the REINZ and Quotable Value house price indices continued to fall in July in quarterly terms: This has taken real house prices back to mid-2020 levels, effectively wiping out the pandemic gains: The number one
In a minor miracle, a southern heat wave has pushed the gas price below Albo’s disastrous $12Gj price floor: Electricity prices are slowly falling: Joseph Stiglitz is on the Australian humiliation tour as he smashes the gas cartel: What is so weird about it is how obvious it all is!
Morgan Stanley with the note. Signals from the Corporate Credit Market Are Consistent with a Soft Landing As market worries about a US recession have subsided but not disappeared, our Fixed-Income Strategists note that credit spreads widened in early August but remain well below long-term averages, let alone recession peaks, and spreads remain below their
SQM Research has released an update on Australia’s housing market, based on its Boom & Bust Report released in November 2023. Author Louis Christopher is especially bearish on Melbourne home prices, tipping price falls this year and no quick turnaround. “Melbourne is indeed falling at present”, Christopher notes. “This is the city we are most
The Albanese government released the Australian Universities Accord Final Report in February, which established the following higher education attainment targets: By 2050, Australia’s tertiary education attainment rate is targeted to increase to at least 80% of the workforce, up from 60% currently. The proportion of Australians aged 25 to 34 with a tertiary education is